


Skin and Bones

by runningfromrealitytoanime



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shadow World Setting (Shadowhunter Chronicles), M/M, semi is a tattoo artist, ushijima and tendou are shadowhunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25021237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runningfromrealitytoanime/pseuds/runningfromrealitytoanime
Summary: Semi has always been able to see things that others couldn't see and believed in the power of symbols. Little did he expect to bump into Ushijima Wakatoshi, a man with mysterious Runes covering his arms that spoke of a tale that was kept secret from the world of man all these years.Shadowhunter chronicles au.
Relationships: Semi Eita/Ushijima Wakatoshi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Shiratorizawa Fanweek 2020





	Skin and Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Had a mad thought about Semi meeting Ushijima and Tendou as a mundane and the two being Shadowhunters. I always loved the concept of tattoos and how they could symbolise so much to a person. Always wanted to get a rune tattoo, might get a marriage Rune when I get married.
> 
> Also, the boys as Shadowhunters just sounds so hot kyahh!!
> 
> Anyways, here is Day 3 : Tattoo parlor au (excluding the florist au) with a tinge of Fantasy in it. 
> 
> Most of the terms might be a bit weird to those not familiar with the series so here are some to straighten things out:
> 
> Stele : Tool used to draw Runes onto a Shadowhunter's body.
> 
> Runes : Tattoos that give power to a Shadowhunter depending on what they draw. Only Shadowhunters can use this power. If a human were to try it... rip to them.
> 
> Mundanes : Normal human, muggle, just a plain old human.
> 
> Also, if you want a soundtrack to listen to this, here is the song [Warrior](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa8iyHzHUSQ) by Beth Crowley and its one of the best songs for Mortal Instruments, if not the best I have ever heard of.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!!

Semi smiled as he watched the faint glow of the stele shining in the darkness being lowered onto his forearm, his skin tingling at being finally able to put on the symbols he had been itching to ink onto his skin ever since he met Ushijima. The former tattoo artist gave a small smile at his lover, who stood on the sidelines as the Silent Brothers began his very first running ceremony, Semi filled with more anticipation than fear as the Silent Brother spoke into his mind, his stitched eyes trained to his own.

_“Are you ready for the first rune to be placed onto your body?”_ he asked as Semi nods, “I am.”

_“Now, I shall place the Voyance Rune and Nephilim symbol on your arm. We will begin the process now.”_

Semi barely let out a hiss as he felt the stele touching his skin, drawing out black lines onto his skin. Semi had traced those very same symbols on Ushijima’s skin, watching as he named out each and every one of the Runes inked onto his skin.

Tattoos that gave a person power. That was something he had always found magical about tattoos.

Semi led a very mundane life working as an artist in a tattoo parlour in Miyagi. While he loved the job of being able to create art and ink it onto people’s skin with love, he always found himself wanting more, to find tattoos that could give life to a person. Tattoos often held a power that he felt was needed in the world; while most people saw tattoos as something that blemished the skin and as the sign of rebellion, Semi just found tattoos to be a work of art.

It was on a normal summer day when he was sitting at the lounge of the parlour, twirling a pen in his hand as he tried to think of what he needed to draw next. He was running out of ideas on what he could draw and he needed all the inspiration he could get. Semi wasn’t your typical kind of tattoo artist who drew pictures of humans and animals; his art was that in symbols, creating symbols that held meaning in them that only he and the future owner of the tattoo would know.

That was when he saw the beautiful stranger walking in front of the shop, his arms covered with swirling patterns that drew in Semi like a moth. He didn’t make any effort to cover them despite how they stood out in the crowd, although no one seemed to notice how odd he was as he walked. Semi felt himself running to the door, the sound of the bell tinkling in the air as he burst through it, a shout escaping his lips as he yelled, “Hey, wait!”

Several people turned to stare at him, most of them looking past the man he had called after. Semi couldn’t understand why most of them were looking at him like a madman when the mystery man decided to turn, Semi’s heart stuttering when he saw how beautiful he looked, his face chiselled and pulled into a serious look with brown hair that made Semi want to run his hands through. His eyes barely showed a hint of surprise as he looked at Semi before turning to walk towards him. semi sucked in a breath as the man grabbed him by the arm and hauled him into the alley next to the parlour, moving to slam him against the wall as Semi yelped, “Hey man! I just wanted to ask about those tattoos on you.”

“Tattoos?” the man wondered out loud as Semi gestured at the symbols on his arms. The man merely raised an eyebrow as he sighed, “These are not tattoos, they are Runes.”

“Wait as in those alchemist symbols and what not?”

“I shouldn’t be telling you anything. Why can you see me?”

“Excuse me? I mean my eyes may be bad but I’m not bad enough to not see you! (not because you’re a hunk and of course anyone would recognise you…)” Semi blurted. The man furrowed his eyebrows, Semi noticing a glint in his boot as he yelped, “Wait a sec, are you part of the mafia or something? Why do you have a knife on you?!”

“I am no mafia member, nor yakuza as you mundanes call them. I am…”

“Wakatoshi!” a voice called as a man stepped into the alleyway, a wide grin on his face as Semi gaped at him. The man sported a bright mop of hair that rose to the sky, his eyes wide and wild as he grinned. He was dressed all in black as well as sporting the exact same pattern of tattoos on his skin. He even had what appeared to be a sword on his back that was made of real, actual steel along with having a belt that had several sharp knives hanging off it. The man gave a chuckle as he raised an eyebrow, eying Semi with interest.

“Say, Wakatoshi. What did you catch here?”

“He can’t be a demon. I don’t sense any demon energy off him.”

“Demon! I ain’t a demon!” Semi yelped as the redhead laughed, “Oya, could he be… maybe he has the Sight?”

“That is possible. I failed to take that into account,” the hunk from earlier named Wakatoshi murmured as he let Semi go, the tattoo artist nearly dropping his sketchbook when the redhead plucked it from his hands, having moved at a speed that he couldn’t even react to as he hummed, turning the pages of the book.

“Man you’re a pretty good artist, for a mundane. Say, are you what they call a tattoo artist? Always wanted to get one although I’ve already have so many on my body,” the man smirked as Wakatoshi sighed, “Tendou, please don’t scare the man any further.”

“Roger,” Tendou smirked as Wakatoshi bowed to Semi, “I am sorry for my actions. Please forgive me for nearly hurting you.” Semi had never had someone bow to him this low before, his hands waving as he tried to keep the blush from creeping onto his face.

“Its alright, honest! I’m… I’m just wondering. What are you guys?”

Tendou gave a small smile as Wakatoshi nodded, Tendou licking his lips as he leaned against the alleyway wall.

“We’re Shadowhunters, people who hunt demons.”

…

Shadowhunters. Half angel and half-human beings who basically policed the human world and rid it of demons. Apparently there were even things such as werewolves, fairies and even warlocks, beings that were stuck in the void of being half-demon and half-human. Semi found himself mindblown when the two men opened up his eyes to the world that had been hidden from his sight his entire life and he couldn’t help but want to know more about it.

Apparently, mundanes, normal humans were not allowed to know anything about the Shadow world, their memories having to have to be wiped to avoid any confusion about demons roaming the earth. Very few were actually given the chance to know more about it, Semi being an exception with his Sight, something that Wakatoshi said was possibly passed down to him through the years from some ancestor of his being part Shadowhunter or possibly fae blood mixed in him. still, Semi couldn’t help but feel that the world he had been thrown into was one of exhilaration and adventure and before he knew it, he was being sucked into it more than he could anticipate.

There was only one way you can be a Shadowhunter; you had to train for two years to learn their ways and traditions before finally drinking from the mortal cup, one of the Mortal Instruments with the ability to change a mundane into a Shadowhunter. The entire Shadowhunter community was suffering from the lack of Shadowhunters from the War that broke out several years back that reduced their forces by nearly half. Japan wasn’t any better but that didn’t stop the Shadowhunters from being overly picky about who they chose to join their ranks.

As Semi was inducted into their community and shown the ways of the Shadowhunters, he found himself getting entranced by the man who had first pulled him into that world. Ushijima Wakatoshi was the strongest Shadowhunter in Japan, his ability to kill demons almost on par with Jace Herondale of the New York Institute. He had been given several opportunities to travel the world and even take up posts in their government but Ushijima had always been a man to be in the field rather than behind the desk, charging forward into battle and keeping up the mandate of the Shadowhunters upright.

Tendou was his best friend and a particularly interesting Shadowhunter at that. The man specialised in knives, often using them to carve up his enemies into ribbons. Tendou had a mad habit of slowly torturing a demon before it dies, letting it suffer before it disappeared off the face of the earth. The first time he had gone on a hunt with them, Semi had nearly thrown up the contents of his dinner when he saw the blood splattering onto his clothes, sizzling through his favourite band shirt as Tendou laughed at how dumb his fashion sense was.

Ushijima had just offered him his jacket when he was forced to shuck away his shirt, leaving his upper body naked to the elements. He felt shy that his body wasn’t as well built as the others, his stomach was a bit flabby and his arms skinny.

What he lacked most was the Runes decorating their skin. He yearned to be able to place one of them on his skin, always watching with wonder as they used their steles to draw their Runes onto their skin. They had just about every Rune for any situation; speed, better hearing, sharp vision, heck, they even had a marriage rune and birth control rune since Shadowhunters had a bad habit of jumping into each other's beds and creating a lot of illegitimate children.

Sometimes when he couldn’t sleep at night, Semi would sneak away to the top of the Miyagi Institute, a shrine that was covered with glamour to give the impression it was abandoned. With it being situated on top of a hill far away from pollution, Semi could see the stars out on a clear night and he often took the time to just sit down and sketch some of the Rune designs he had seen on Ushijima and Tendou’s bodies.

Ushijima sometimes came along to sit down, needing some time to rest as well as he watched Semi sketch. He would always answer each of his questions dutifully, noting out each and every Rune on his body. Semi yearned to touch them and feel them under his skin, feel their power that made Ushijima into the Shadowhunter he was. Slowly, he felt himself not only getting lost in the black ink, but also in the eyes of the man wielding them. Ushijima was no doubt a fine specimen and a person who saved him from his previous life. With his Sight, Semi had been atrocised as being weird by most of his schoolmates, his own parents even sending him to a psychiatrist when he claimed that he saw warlocks or even kappa walking the streets. He had wanted to get away from it all and found solitude in drawing, letting himself get sucked into worlds that he could create.

“Hey, Wakatoshi, what does this mean?” he whispered as he traced a Rune on Ushijima’s chest, his cheeks flushed from the cold air as Ushijima rumbled, “This is the parabatai Rune, where two Shadowhunters are linked together in body and soul on the battlefield. Tendou is my parabatai and I would have never survived until now if it weren’t for him.” At one point, Semi had asked Tendou if he had a crush on Ushijima, to which the other man had laughed.

_“I would love to but I don’t love Wakatoshi in that manner. Besides, it would be breaking the law if I did.”_

“Is there a Rune you haven’t got yet?” Semi asked as Ushijima let out a small sigh, “The marriage Rune. I don’t know if I will ever get it but if I do, it would be over here. It’s a symbol of a couple joining their hearts together. The partner will have to draw it onto their skin. I feel bad for the person I want to marry for my bad drawing skills.”

“Anyone who could be with you is lucky,” Semi whispered as Ushijima’s ears pricked up. Semi hadn’t realised he had said it out loud, his heart beating fast as he stammered, “I mean, you’re amazing and everything so who wouldn’t like you?”

“Eita, do you like me?” Ushijima asked, his question straight in his face as Semi groaned internally. He hated how Ushijima was so straight-laced and always went straight to the point. He often hurt many girl’s and boy’s hearts alike with his words, telling them that he wasn’t interested.

Was he going to say the same to him? At this point, Semi just wanted to get it off his chest and out there.

“And what if I do?” he whispered as he felt Ushijima’s big hand covering his, followed by his hand tracing his jaw as he smiled, his breath ghosting Semi’s lips as he whispered, “I would like that very much.” Their first kiss was gentle, Ushijima gently kissing Semi as he melted underneath him. Those strong arms that were capable of hacking demons into pieces held him like he was made of glass. Whenever he was in battle, he would move with such fluid grace, his movements fast and sure as he cut down his enemies.

Ushijima broke the kiss as he pressed his forehead against Semi’s, the other boy panting as he clutched his chest. Ushijima looked worried for a moment that he might have done something to hurt him when Semi let out a sob, a stray tear running down his cheek as he whispered, “Ushijima, you’re the first person who made me feel as though I had a reason to live, that I was something. For you to love me, it’s a bit too much.” Ushijima gently enveloped him in his arms, carding his fingers through his hair as he whispered against him. Even as the stars twinkled above their heads, Semi would still remember the words he said to him, sealing his fate within his life as Ushijima promised.

“I will make sure the one to carve the rune across my heart one day will be you.”

…

Two years later, Semi was now a Shadowhunter and finally had the chance to be with Ushijima and Tendou. Now as he stood in the Silent City, receiving his first Runes, the only thing he could think about was how he could finally be able to stand by Ushijima’s side as an equal.

Tendou smiled and waved from him at the sidelines, a lopsided grin on his face as Ushijima looked on proudly. He had a fond smile on his face as Semi smiled back, the ashy-blonde mouthing the words he had echoed to him all those years ago as he smiled.

“I will carve the marriage Rune across your heart one day. And that one day will be today.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this fic!
> 
> Come yell at me on Twitter or Tumblr @runningfromrealitytoanime.
> 
> Please leave some comments and kudos! They really make my day!


End file.
